Obama Tells Unemployed They’re Not a Priority; Republicans Call for New Hoover from Firedoglake

 by Scarecrow http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/17438

Herbert Hoover, 31st President, by Douglas Chandor (photo: cliff1066)

Early reports from the mis-named "Jobs Summit" convey the discouraging message that the Obama Administration doesn't think dramatic and rapid reductions in unemployment are a high priority.

Obama told the Summit attendees that the federal government was hindered by limited resources and growing deficits, so even though the private economy is still incapable of filling the void, most job creation would have to come from the private sector. From the AP/MSNBC:

"So we can't make any ill considered decisions right now even with the best of intentions," he said. "We have to be surgical and we're going to have to be creative." Obama appealed to his audience of academics, business and union leaders and local officials to help him find "the biggest bang for the buck."

Way to rally and mobilize the country, give hope and hold your economic team accountable, Mr. President.

We got a preview of this pitiful handwringing in Christy Romer's WSJ op ed, entitled Putting Americans Back to Work. I like Romer, and her work to define the scope of a needed stimulus last winter was solid, given their (too optimistic) assumptions about how deep the recession and job loss would be. It's not her fault that her recommendations were cut in half by the dynamic duo of Summers/Geithner and then compromised further by the political genius, Rahm.

So, I assume she merely drew the short straw on who must write the political defense for not doing more. But the defense contains a damaging admission. . .:

Months ago, President Obama asked his economic team to intensify our exploration of strategies to build on the Recovery Act and subsequent measures to help spur job creation. Tomorrow he will convene a meeting of business and labor leaders, small-business owners, economists and community representatives to discuss our ideas and solicit others for accelerating hiring.

The rest of the op ed lists about three-and-a-half ideas, and then contains this revelation:

All these ideas are just that—ideas to be discussed, refined and evaluated. Action on any measures to spur job creation will be worked out with Congress after careful study, and will be done in a fiscally responsible way.

So, months ago, the President called for ideas on how to put Americans back to work, and months later, all they can show for it are few ideas that were obvious months ago and could have been compiled in a week. And yet for months, it's been obvious that more was needed immediately, that unemployment would be far worse than they anticiated and would last far longer than they hoped.

That effort must rank as the most pathetic defense of governmental and political malfeasance we've seen from an Administration that is just shining us on because it just doesn't care. Fire the lot.

Meanwhile, at a "counter summit," the Republicans brought out Douglas Holtz-Eakins to urge that we bring back Herbert Hoover. If we pay enough grave diggers enough to dig up the body, it might work.